Luring London – The City’s Playful Public Art Trails

London surprises me. Every time. This is one city that doesn’t just wear its history on its sleeve but paints it across pavements, balances it on rooftops, and hides it in plain sight. Every time I have stepped out of my home in London, I have stepped into a story told in sculpture and colour. Lots of readers who have visited London will know that euphoric sweep of emotions when one pauses before book-shaped benches nestled in parks and public spaces. Some other years it could be colourful elephants parading across bridges. This year they have a massive Easter egg hunt going on. Well, not the kind of eggs one eats but giant eggs made from ceramic, stone, wood, or steel that qualify as public art. ‘Public art is part of what makes London feel like it belongs to everyone — it sneaks joy into your commute, your errands, your daily rush,’ proclaims Zadie Smith, novelist and essayist in  some essays on her essays about culture and life in NW London.

London’s Legendary Art Hunts

Public art in London is not just a decoration. It is always an invitation to look closer, to wander wider, and to feel the heartbeat of a city that never stops speaking in artsy metaphors. Art pops up on street corners wearing polka dots or posing as a giant Easter egg. There could be a series of snowmen one year and then you, as the tourist, could go all over the same streets and parks wondering how new and wonderful they seem. Someone aptly called these art pieces the love language of London, scribbled in sculpture and sprayed in colour. There are trails to be pursued and this is how London makes the new tourist discover its secrets and the veterans fall in love repeatedly. This is how London winks and whispers: ‘Hey, slow down.” Look closer. Discover fun in living moments.’ Public art for London isn’t just a means of luring tourists but also about transforming every bit of space into a visual treat, installing a unique story in every possible twist and turn, encouraging community engagement, and helping turn the scintillas of idle curiosity into a creative conflagration.

London in Layers: Art, Streets, and Stories

In our past visits to London, we have gone about with gusto searching for the colourful elephants and then in another trip it was all about benches shaped like open books and in other years we have loved these artsy scavenger hunts for snowman as well as Shaun in the city. This year is all about Easter eggs though we have spotted only one so far. Iain Sinclair, psycho-geographer and author writes: ‘You Walk through London and it speaks to you — not just through its buildings, but through the strange, brilliant things it leaves in your path.’

This city is so full of ideas… it thinks of rotating contemporary installations, lighting up central London bridges, contemporary art commissions inside tube stations, murals that transform buildings into massive canvases, and even weeks of nighttime festival of lights installations. I recollect going to Victoria dock to watch the lighted floating swan platoon! No one, including the mainstream media, has ever talked about any negative comments about the public art installations of London. The views have nearly always been defined them as the gonadal giggle of cultural values, smugly family-friendly, a great tourist draw, and a visual spectacle that needs to be encouraged every year. Well, as a tourist I am pleased. And the artists here must be chuffed a lot.

Creativity always matters. No wonder then that London has seen Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin contribute their works, and tens of lesser known artists get an opportunity to share their creative output with bigger names. London streets come alive in every season… no, art is hardly ever restricted to only a few months.

London streets are inundated with sculptures or painted shapes if they have the power to initiate meaningful conversations. For instance, a bench shaped like a book invites you not just to sit, but to remember the stories that shaped this place. Some analysts attribute this fascination with art to London being a layered city – messy, magical, and magnificently alive! Its streets hold centuries of contradiction: tradition and rebellion, silence and song, grief and glitter. Public art slips into that space in between. It belongs to no one and everyone. It doesn’t wait for you to buy a ticket or walk through a gallery door. It simply appears –bold, cheeky, thoughtful — and reminds you: this city is yours, too.

Public art in London is a way for London to talk to itself and to anyone who is willing to listen. Well, I am always a willing person and this is one reason I smile whenever there is a chance to fly down from Delhi to London.
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Arvind Passey
Uploaded on 14 April 2025
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